Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va. Tab: 1. Book 2. Pag: 120Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va.Tab: 1. Book 2. Pag: 120
Tab.I. Represents the Indians in a canoe with a fire in the middle, attended by a boy and a girl. In one end is a net made of silk grass, which they use in fishing their weirs. Above is the shape of their weirs, and the manner of setting a weir wedge across the mouth of a creek.
Note.That in fishing their weirs they lay the side of the canoe to the cods of the weir, for the more convenient coming at them, and not with the end going into the cods, as is set down in the print: but we could not otherwise represent it here, lest we should have confounded the shape of the weir with the canoe.In the air you see a fishing hawk flying away with a fish, and a bald eagle pursuing to take it from him; the bald eagle has always his head and tail white, and they carry such a lustre with them that the white thereof may be discerned as far as you can see the shape of the bird, and seems as if it were without feathers, and thence it has its name bald eagle.
Note.That in fishing their weirs they lay the side of the canoe to the cods of the weir, for the more convenient coming at them, and not with the end going into the cods, as is set down in the print: but we could not otherwise represent it here, lest we should have confounded the shape of the weir with the canoe.
In the air you see a fishing hawk flying away with a fish, and a bald eagle pursuing to take it from him; the bald eagle has always his head and tail white, and they carry such a lustre with them that the white thereof may be discerned as far as you can see the shape of the bird, and seems as if it were without feathers, and thence it has its name bald eagle.
§ 24. 'Tis a good diversion to observe, the manner of the fishing-hawk's preying upon fish, which may be seen every fair day all the summer long, and especially in a morning. At the first coming of the fish in the spring, these birds of prey are surprisingly eager. I believe, in the dead of winter, they fish farther off at sea, or remain among the craggy uninhabited islands upon the sea coast. I have often been pleasantly entertained by seeing these hawks take the fish out of the water, and as they were flying away with their quarry, the bald eagles take it from them again. I have often observed the first of these hover over the water and rest upon the wing some minutes together, without the least change of place, and then from a vast height dart directly into the water, and there plunge down for the space of half a minute or more, and at last bring up with him a fish which he could hardly rise with; then, having got upon the wing again, he would shake himself so powerfully that he threw the water like a mist about him; afterwards away he'd fly to the woods with his game, if he were not overlooked by the bald eagle and robbed by the way, which very frequently happens. For the bald eagle no sooner perceives a hawk that has taken his prey but he immediately pursues and strives to get above him in the air, which if he can once attain, the hawk for fear of being torn by him, lets the fish drop, and so by the loss of his dinner compounds for his own safety. The poor fish is no sooner loosed from the hawk's talons, but the eagle shoots himself with wonderful swiftness after it, and catches it in the air, leaving all further pursuit of the hawk, which has no other remedy but to go and fish for another.
Walking once with a gentleman in an orchard by the river side, early in the spring, before the fish were by us perceived to appear in shoal water or near the shores, and before any had been caught by the people, we heard a great noise in the air just over our heads, and looking up we saw an eagle in close pursuit of a hawk that had a great fish in his pounces. The hawk was as low as theapple trees before he would let go his fish, thinking to recover the wood which was just by, where the eagles dare never follow, for fear of bruising themselves. But, notwithstanding the fish was dropped so low, and though it did not fall above thirty yards from us, yet we with our hollowing, running and casting up our hats, could hardly save the fish from the eagle, and if it had been let go two yards higher he would have got it: but we at last took possession of it alive, carried it home, and had it dressed forthwith. It served five of us very plentifully for a breakfast, and some to the servants. This fish was a rock near two feet long, very fat, and a great rarity for the time of year, as well as for the manner of its being taken.
These fishing hawks, in more plentiful seasons, will catch a fish and loiter about with it in the air, on purpose to have chase with an eagle; and when he does not appear soon enough the hawk will make a saucy noise, and insolently defy him. This has been frequently seen by persons who have observed their fishings.
OF WILD FOWL AND HUNTED GAME.
§ 25. As in summer, the rivers and creeks are filled with fish, so in winter they are in many places covered with fowl. There are such a multitude of swans, geese, brants, sheldrakes, ducks of several sorts, mallard, teal, blewings, and many other kinds of water fowl, that the plenty of them is incredible. I am but a small sportsman, yet with a fowling piece have killed above twenty of them at a shot. In like manner are the mill ponds and great runs in the woods stored with these wild fowl at certain seasons of the year.
§ 26. The shores, marshy grounds, swamps and savannahs are also stored with the like plenty of other game of all sorts, as cranes, curlews, herons, snipes, woodcocks, saurers, ox-eyes, plovers, larks, and many other good birds for the table that they have not yet found a name for. Not to mention beavers, otters, musk rats, minxes, and an infinite number of other wild creatures.
§ 27. Although the inner lands want these benefits, (which, however, no pond or plash is without,) yet even they have the advantage of wild turkeys, of an incredible bigness, pheasants, partridges, pigeons, and an infinity of small birds, as well as deer, hares, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, opossums. And upon the frontier plantations, they meet with bears, panthers, wild cats, elks, buffaloes and wild hogs, which yield pleasure as well as profit to the sportsman. And though some of these names may seem frightful to the English, who hear not of them in their own country, yet they are not so there, for all these creatures ever flyfrom the face of man, doing no damage but to the cattle and hogs, which the Indians never troubled themselves about.
Here I cannot omit a strange rarity in the female opossum, which I myself have seen. They have a false belly, or loose skin quite over the belly; this never sticks to the flesh of the belly, but may be looked into at all times, after they have been concerned in procreation. In the hinderpart of this is an aperture big enough for a small hand to pass into: hither the young ones, after they are full haired, and strong enough to run about, do fly whenever any danger appears, or when they go to rest or suck. This they continue till they have learned to live without the dam: but what is yet stranger, the young ones are bred in this false belly without ever being within the true one. They are formed at the teat, and there they grow for several weeks together into perfect shape, becoming visibly larger, till at last they get strength, sight and hair; and then they drop off and rest in this false belly, going in and out at pleasure. I have observed them thus fastened at the teat from the bigness of a fly until they become as large as a mouse. Neither is it any hurt to the old one to open this budget and look in upon her young.
§ 28. The Indians had no other way of taking their water or land fowl, but by the help of bows and arrows. Yet so great was their plenty, that with this weapon only they killed what numbers they pleased. And when the water fowl kept far from shore (as in warmer weather they sometimes did) they took their canoes and paddled after them.
But they had a better way of killing the elks, buffaloes, deer, and greater game, by a method which we call fire hunting: that is, a company of them would go together back into the woods any time in the winter, when the leaves were falling and so dry that they would burn; and being come to the place designed, they would fire the woods in a circle of five or six miles compass; and whenthey had completed the first round they retreated inward, each at his due distance, and put fire to the leaves and grass afresh, to accelerate the work, which ought to be finished with the day. This they repeat till the circle be so contracted that they can see their game herded all together in the middle, panting and almost stifled with heat and smoke; for the poor creatures being frightened at the flame keep running continually round, thinking to run from it, and dare not pass through the fire; by which means they are brought at last into a very narrow compass. Then the Indians retreat into the centre, and let fly their arrows at them as they pass round within the circle; by this means, though they stand often quite clouded in smoke, they rarely shoot each other. By this means they destroy all the beasts collected within that circle. They make all this slaughter chiefly for the sake of the skins, leaving most of the carcasses to perish in the woods.
Father Verbiast, in his description of the Emperor of China's voyage into the Eastern Tartary, Anno 1682, gives an account of a way of hunting the Tartars have, not much unlike this; only whereas the Indians surround their game with fire, the Tartars do it with a great body of armed men, who having environed the ground they design to drive, march equally inwards, which, still as the ring lessens, brings the men nearer each other, till at length the wild beasts are encompassed with a living wall.
The Indians have many pretty inventions to discover and come up to the deer, turkeys and other game undiscerned; but that being an art known to very few English there, I will not be so accessary to the destruction of their game as to make it public. I shall therefore only tell you, that when they go a hunting into the outlands, they commonly go out for the whole season with their wives and family. At the place where they find the most game they build up a convenient number of small cabins, wherein they live during that season. These cabins are both begun and finished in two or three days, and after the season is over they make no farther account of them.
§ 29. This, and a great deal more, was the natural production of that country, which the native Indians enjoyed, without the curse of industry, their diversion alone, and not their labor, supplying their necessities. The women and children indeed were so far provident as to lay up some of the nuts and fruits of the earth in their season for their farther occasions: but none of the toils of husbandry were exercised by this happy people, except the bare planting a little corn and melons, which took up only a few days in the summer, the rest being wholly spent in the pursuit of their pleasures. And indeed all that the English have done since their going thither has been only to make some of these native pleasures more scarce, by an inordinate and unseasonable use of them; hardly making improvements equivalent to that damage.
I shall in the next book give an account of the Indians themselves, their religion, laws and customs; that so both the country and its primitive inhabitants may be considered together in that original state of nature in which the English found them. Afterwards I will treat of the present state of the English there, and the alterations, I can't call them improvements, they have made at this day.
OF THE INDIANS, THEIR RELIGION, LAWS AND CUSTOMS, IN WAR AND PEACE.
OF THE INDIANS AND THEIR DRESS.
§ 1. The Indians are of the middling and largest stature of the English. They are straight and well proportioned, having the cleanest and most exact limbs in the world. They are so perfect in their outward frame, that I never heard of one single Indian that was either dwarfish, crooked, bandy-legged, or otherwise misshapen. But if they have any such practice among them as the Romans had, of exposing such children till they died, as were weak and misshapen at their birth, they are very shy of confessing it, and I could never yet learn that they had.
Their color, when they are grown up, is a chestnut brown and tawny; but much clearer in their infancy. Their skin comes afterwards to harden and grow blacker by greasing and sunning themselves. They have generally coal black hair, and very black eyes, which are most commonly graced with that sort of squint which many of the Jews are observed to have. Their women are generally beautiful, possessing shape and features agreeable enough, and wanting no charm but that of education and a fair complexion.
§ 2. The men wear their hair cut after several fanciful fashions, sometimes greased, and sometimes painted. The great men, or better sort, preserve a long lock behind for distinction. They pull their beards up by the roots with musselshells, and both men and women do the same by the other parts of their body for cleanliness sake. The women wear the hair of the head very long, either hanging at their backs, or brought before in a single lock, bound up with a fillet of peak, or beads; sometimes also they wear it neatly tied up in a knot behind. It is commonly greased, and shining black, but never painted.
The people of condition, of both sexes, wear a sort of coronet on their heads, from four to six inches broad, open at the top, and composed of peak, or beads, or else of both interwoven together, and worked into figures, made by a nice mixture of the colors. Sometimes they wear a wreath of died furs, as likewise bracelets on their necks and arms. The common people go bare-headed, only sticking large shining feathers about their heads, as their fancies lead them.
§ 3. Their clothes are a large mantle, carelessly wrapped about their bodies, and sometimes girt close in the middle with a girdle. The upper part of this mantle is drawn close upon the shoulders, and the other hangs below their knees. When that's thrown off, they have only for modesty sake a piece of cloth, or a small skin tied round their waist, which reaches down to the middle of the thigh. The common sort tie only a string round their middle, and pass a piece of cloth or skin round between their thighs, which they turn at each end over the string.
Their shoes, when they wear any, are made of an entire piece of buckskin, except when they sew a piece to the bottom to thicken the sole. They are fastened on with running strings, the skin being drawn together like a purse on the top of the foot, and tied round the ankle. The Indian name of this kind of shoe is moccasin.
But because a draught of these things will inform thereader more at first view than a description in many words, I shall present him with the following prints drawn by the life.
Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va. Tab: 2 Book: 3 Pag 129Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va.Tab: 2 Book: 3 Pag 129
Tab.II. is an Indian man in his summer dress. The upper part of his hair is cut short to make a ridge, which stands up like the comb of a cock, the rest is either shorn off, or knotted behind his ear. On his head are stuck three feathers of the wild turkey, pheasant, hawk, or such like. At his ear is hung a fine shell with pearl drops. At his breast is a tablet, or fine shell, smooth as polished marble, which sometimes also hath etched on it a star, half moon, or other figure, according to the maker's fancy. Upon his neck and wrists hang strings of beads, peak and roenoke. His apron is made of a deer skin, gashed round the edges, which hang like tassels or fringe; at the upper end of the fringe is an edging of peak, to make it finer. His quiver is of a thin bark; but sometimes they make it of the skin of a fox, or young wolf, with the head hanging to it, which has a wild sort of terror in it; and to make it yet more warlike, they tie it on with the tail of a panther, buffalo, or such like, letting the end hang down between their legs. The pricked lines on his shoulders, breast and legs, represent the figures painted thereon. In his left hand he holds a bow, and in his right an arrow. The mark upon his shoulderblade is a distinction used by the Indians in traveling, to show the nation they are of; and perhaps is the same with that which Baron Lahontan calls the arms and heraldry of the Indians. Thus the several lettered marks are used by several other nations about Virginia, when they make a journey to their friends and allies.
The landscape is a natural representation of an Indian field.
Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond. Fig. 2 Fig. 1 Tab. 3 Book 3 Pag. 129Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond.Fig. 2 Fig. 1Tab. 3 Book 3 Pag. 129
Tab.III is two Indian men in their winter dress. Seldom any but the elder people wore the winter cloaks (which they call match-coats) till they got a supply ofEuropean goods; and now most have them of one sort or other in the cold winter weather. Fig. 1 wears the proper Indian match-coat, which is made of skins, dressed with the fur on, sewed together, and worn with the fur inwards, having the edges also gashed for beauty sake. On his feet are moccasins. By him stand some Indian cabins on the banks of the river. Fig. 2 wears the Duffield match-coat bought of the English; on his head is a coronet of peak, on his legs are stockings made of Duffields: that is, they take a length to reach from the ankle to the knee, so broad as to wrap round the leg; this they sew together, letting the edges stand out at an inch beyond the seam. When this is on, they garter below knee, and fasten the lower end in the moccasin.
§ 4. I don't find that the Indians have any other distinction in their dress, or the fashion of their hair, than only what a greater degree of riches enables them to make, except it be their religious persons, who are known by the particular cut of the hair and the unusual figure of their garments; as our clergy are distinguished by their canonical habit.
The habit of the Indian priest is a cloak made in the form of a woman's petticoat; but instead of tieing it about their middle, they fasten the gatherings about their neck and tie it upon the right shoulder, always keeping one arm out to use upon occasion. This cloak hangs even at the bottom, but reaches no lower than the middle of the thigh; but what is most particular in it is, that it is constantly made of a skin dressed soft, with the pelt or fur on the outside, and reversed; insomuch, that when the cloak has been a little worn the hair falls down in flakes, and looks very shagged and frightful.
The cut of their hair is likewise peculiar to their function; for 'tis all shaven close except a thin crest, like a cock's comb, which stands bristling up, and runs in a semicircle from the forehead up along the crown to the nape of the neck. They likewise have a border of hair over theforehead, which by its own natural strength, and by the stiffening it receives from grease and paint, will stand out like the peak of a bonnet.
a Huskanaw pen. 3 Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond. Fig 2 a Priest Fig. 1 a Conjurer Tab 4 Book 3 Pag 131a Huskanaw pen. 3Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond.Fig 2 a Priest Fig. 1 a ConjurerTab 4 Book 3 Pag 131
Tab.IV. Is a priest and a conjurer in their proper habits. The priest's habit is sufficiently described above. The conjurer shaves all his hair off, except the crest on the crown; upon his ear he wears the skin of some dark colored bird; he, as well as the priest, is commonly grimed with soot or the like; to save his modesty he hangs an otter skin at his girdle, fastening the tail between his legs; upon his thigh hangs his pocket, which is fastened by tucking it under his girdle, the bottom of this is likewise fringed with tassels for ornament sake. In the middle between them is the Huskanawpen spoken of § 32.
§ 5. The dress of the women is little different from that of the men, except in the tieing of their hair. The women of distinction wear deep necklaces, pendants and bracelets, made of small cylinders of the conch shell, which they call peak: they likewise keep their skin clean and shining with oil, while the men are commonly bedaubed all over with paint.
They are remarkable for having small round breasts, and so firm, that they are hardly ever observed to hang down, even in old women. They commonly go naked as far as the navel downward, and upward to the middle of the thigh, by which means they have the advantage of discovering their fine limbs and complete shape.
Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond. Fig. 2 Fig. 1 Tab 5 Book 3 Pag. 131Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond.Fig. 2 Fig. 1Tab 5 Book 3 Pag. 131
Tab.V. Is a couple of young women. The first wearing a coronet, necklace and bracelet of peak; the second a wreath of furs on her head, and her hair is bound with a fillet of peak and beads. Between the two is a woman under a tree making a basket of silk grass after their own manner.
Pipe of peace IV ch. I have seen. Lahontans Calumet of peace. a Birchen Canoe or Canoe of Bark Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va. Tab. 6 Book 3 Pag. 132Pipe of peace IVch.I have seen. Lahontans Calumet of peace.a Birchen Canoe or Canoe of BarkLith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va.Tab. 6 Book 3 Pag. 132
Tab.VI. Is a woman and a boy running after her. One of her hands rests in her necklace of peak, and the other holds a gourd, in which they put water or other liquid.
The boy wears a necklace of runtees, in his right hand is an Indian rattle, and in his left a roasting ear of corn. Round his waist is a small string, and another brought cross through his crotch, and for decency a soft skin is fastened before.
Runtees are made of the conch shell as the peak is, only the shape is flat and round like a cheese, and drilled edge ways.
OF THE MARRIAGES AMONGST THE INDIANS, AND MANAGEMENT OF THEIR CHILDREN.
§ 6. The Indians have their solemnities of marriage, and esteem the vows made at that time as most sacred and inviolable. Notwithstanding they allow both the man and the wife to part upon disagreement, yet so great is the disreputation of a divorce, that married people, to avoid the character of inconstant and ungenerous, very rarely let their quarrels proceed to a separation. However, when it does so happen, they reckon all the ties of matrimony dissolved, and each hath the liberty of marrying another. But infidelity is accounted the most unpardonable of all crimes in either of the parties as long as the contract continues.
In these separations, the children go, according to the affection of the parent, with the one or the other; for children are not reckoned a charge among them, but rather riches, according to the blessing of the Old Testament; and if they happen to differ about dividing their children, their method is then to part them equally, allowing the man the first choice.
§ 7. Though the young Indian women are said to prostitute their bodies for wampom peak, runtees, beads, and other such like fineries; yet I never could find any ground for the accusation, and believe it only to be an unjust scandal upon them. This I know, that if ever they have a child while they are single, it is such a disgrace to them that they never after get husbands. Besides, I must do them the justice to say, I never heard of a child any of them had before marriage, and the Indians themselves disownany such custom; though they acknowledge, at the same time, that the maidens are entirely at their own disposal, and may manage their persons as they think fit.
§ 8. The manner of the Indians treating their young children is very strange; for instead of keeping them warm, at their first entry into the world, and wrapping them up, with I don't know how many clothes, according to our fond custom, the first thing they do is to dip the child over head and ears in cold water, and then to bind it naked to a convenient board, having a hole fitly placed for evacuation; but they always put cotton, wool, fur, or other soft things, for the body to rest easy on, between the child and the board. In this posture they keep it several months, till the bones begin to harden, the joints to knit, and the limbs to grow strong; and then they let it loose from the board, suffering it to crawl about, except when they are feeding or playing with it.
While the child is thus at the board, they either lay it flat on its back, or set it leaning on one end, or else hang it up by a string fastened to the upper end of the board for that purpose; the child and board being all this while carried about together. As our women undress their children to clean and shift their linen, so they do theirs to wash and grease them.
The method the women have of carrying their children after they are suffered to crawl about, is very particular; they carry them at their backs in summer, taking one leg of the child under their arm, and the counter-arm of the child in their hand over their shoulder; the other leg hanging down, and the child all the while holding fast with its other hand; but in winter they carry them in the hollow of their match-coat at their back, leaving nothing but the child's head out, as appears by the figure.
Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond. Fig: 2. Fig: 3. Fig: 1. Tab: 7. Book 3. Pag: 134Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond.Fig: 2. Fig: 3. Fig: 1.Tab: 7. Book 3. Pag: 134
Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond. Tab. 8 Book 3 Pag. 135Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond.Tab. 8 Book 3 Pag. 135
OF THE TOWNS, BUILDINGS AND FORTIFICATIONS OF THE INDIANS.
§ 9. The method of the Indian settlements is altogether by cohabitation, in townships, from fifty to five hundred families in a town, and each of these towns is commonly a kingdom. Sometimes one king has the command of several of these towns, when they happen to be united in his hands by descent or conquest; but in such cases there is always a vicegerent appointed in the dependent town, who is at once governor, judge, chancellor, and has the same power and authority which the king himself has in the town where he resides. This viceroy is obliged to pay his principal some small tribute, as an acknowledgment of his submission, as likewise to follow him to his wars whenever he is required.
§ 10. The manner the Indians have of building their houses is very slight and cheap. When they would erect a wigwam, which is the Indian name for a house, they stick saplings into the ground by one end, and bend the other at the top, fastening them together by strings made of fibrous roots, the rind of trees, or of the green wood of the white oak, which will rive into thongs. The smallest sort of these cabins are conical like a bee-hive; but the larger are built in an oblong form, and both are covered with the bark of trees, which will rive off into great flakes. Their windows are little holes left open for the passage of the light, which in bad weather they stop with shutters of the same bark, opening the leeward windows for air and light. Their chimney, as among the true born Irish, is a little hole on the top of the house, to let out the smoke, havingno sort of funnel, or any thing within, to confine the smoke from ranging through the whole roof of the cabin, if the vent will not let it out fast enough. The fire is always made in the middle of the cabin. Their door is a pendent mat, when they are near home; but when they go abroad they barricade it with great logs of wood set against the mat, which are sufficient to keep out wild beasts. There's never more than one room in a house, except in some houses of state, or religion, where the partition is made only by mats and loose poles.
§ 11. Their houses, or cabins, as we call them, are by this ill method of building continually smoky when they have fire in them; but to ease that inconvenience, and to make the smoke less troublesome to their eyes, they generally burn pine or lightwood, (that is, the fat knots of dead pine,) the smoke of which does not offend the eyes, but smuts the skin exceedingly, and is perhaps another occasion of the darkness of their complexion.
§ 12. Their seats, like those in the eastern part of the world, are the ground itself; and as the people of distinction amongst those used carpets, so cleanliness has taught the better sort of these to spread match-coats and mats to sit on.
They take up their lodging in the sides of their cabins upon a couch made of boards, sticks, or reeds, which are raised from the ground upon forks, and covered with mats or skins. Sometimes they lie upon a bear skin, or other thick pelt dressed with the hair on, and laid upon the ground near a fire, covering themselves with their match-coats. In warm weather a single mat is their only bed, and another rolled up their pillow. In their travels, a grass plat under the covert of a shady tree, is all the lodging they require, and is as pleasant and refreshing to them as a down bed and fine Holland sheets are to us.
§ 13. Their fortifications consist only of a palisade, of about ten or twelve feet high; and when they would make themselves very safe, they treble the pale. They often encompasstheir whole town; but for the most part only their king's houses, and as many others as they judge sufficient to harbor all their people when an enemy comes against them. They never fail to secure within their palisade all their religious relics, and the remains of their princes. Within this inclosure, they likewise take care to have a supply of water, and to make a place for a fire, which they frequently dance round with great solemnity.
OF THEIR COOKERY AND FOOD.
§ 14. Their cookery has nothing commendable in it, but that it is performed with little trouble. They have no other sauce but a good stomach, which they seldom want. They boil, broil, or toast all the meat they eat, and it is very common with them to boil fish as well as flesh with their homony; this is Indian corn soaked, broken in a mortar, husked, and then boiled in water over a gentle fire for ten or twelve hours, to the consistence of frumenty: the thin of this is what my Lord Bacon calls cream of maise, and highly commends for an excellent sort of nutriment.
They have two ways of broiling, viz., one by laying the meat itself upon the coals, the other by laying it upon sticks raised upon forks at some distance above the live coals, which heats more gently, and dries up the gravy; this they, and we also from them, call barbecueing.
They skin and paunch all sorts of quadrupeds; they draw and pluck their fowl; but their fish they dress with their scales on, without gutting; but in eating they leave the scales, entrails and bones to be thrown away. They also roast their fish upon a hot hearth, covering them with hot ashes and coals, then take them out, the scales and skin they strip clean off, so they eat the flesh, leaving the bones and entrails to be thrown away.
They never serve up different sorts of victuals in one dish; as roast and boiled fish and flesh; but always serve them up in several vessels.
They bake their bread either in cakes before the fire, or in loaves on a warm hearth, covering the loaf first with leaves, then with warm ashes, and afterwards with coals over all.
Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond. Tab. 9 Book 3 Pag. 139Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond.Tab. 9 Book 3 Pag. 139
Tab.IX. Represents the manner of their roasting and barbecueing, with the form of their baskets for common uses, and carrying fish.
§ 15. Their food is fish and flesh of all sorts, and that which participates of both; as the beaver, a small kind of turtle, or terrapins, (as we call them,) and several species of snakes. They likewise eat grubs, the nymphæ of wasps, some kinds of scarabæi, cicadæ, &c. These last are such as are sold in the markets of Fess, and such as the Arabians, Lybians, Parthians and Æthiopians commonly eat; so that these are not a new diet, though a very slender one; and we are informed that St. John was dieted upon locusts and wild honey.
They make excellent broth of the head and umbles of a deer, which they put into the pot all bloody. This seems to resemble thejus nigrumof the Spartans, made with the blood and bowels of a hare. They eat not the brains with the head, but dry them and reserve them to dress their leather with.
They eat all sorts of peas, beans, and other pulse, both parched and boiled. They make their bread of the Indian corn, wild oats, or the seed of the sunflower. But when they eat their bread, they eat it alone, and not with their meat.
They have no salt among them, but for seasoning use the ashes of hickory, stickweed, or some other wood or plant affording a salt ash.
They delight much to feed on roasting ears; that is, the Indian corn, gathered green and milky, before it is grown to its full bigness, and roasted before the fire in the ear. For the sake of this diet, which they love exceedingly, they are very careful to procure all the several sorts of Indian corn before mentioned, by which means they contrive to prolong their season. And indeed this is a very sweet and pleasing food.
They have growing near their towns, peaches, strawberries, cushaws, melons, pompions, macocks, &c. The cushawsand pompions they lay by, which will keep several months good after they are gathered; the peaches they save by drying them in the sun; they have likewise several sorts of the phaseoli.
In the woods, they gather chinkapins, chestnuts, hickories and walnuts. The kernels of the hickories they beat in a mortar with water, and make a white liquor like milk, from whence they call our milk hickory. Hazelnuts they will not meddle with, though they make a shift with acorns sometimes, and eat all the other fruits mentioned before, but they never eat any sort of herbs or leaves.
They make food of another fruit called cuttanimmons, the fruit of a kind of arum, growing in the marshes: they are like boiled peas or capers to look on, but of an insipid earthy taste. Captain Smith in his History of Virginia calls them ocaughtanamnis, and Theod. de Bry in his translation, sacquenummener.
Out of the ground they dig trubs, earth nuts, wild onions, and a tuberous root they call tuckahoe, which while crude is of a very hot and virulent quality: but they can manage it so, as in case of necessity, to make bread of it, just as the East Indians and those of Egypt are said to do of colocassia, or the West Indians of cassava. It grows like a flag in the miry marshes, having roots of the magnitude and taste of Irish potatoes, which are easy to be dug up.
§ 16. They accustom themselves to no set meals, but eat night and day, when they have plenty of provisions, or if they have got any thing that is a rarity. They are very patient of hunger, when by any accident they happen to have nothing to eat; which they make more easy to themselves by girding up their bellies, just as the wild Arabs are said to do in their long marches; by which means they are less sensible of the impressions of hunger.
§ 17. Among all this variety of food, nature hath not taught them the use of any other drink than water; which though they have in cool and pleasant springs every where, yet they will not drink that if they can get pond water, orsuch as has been warmed by the sun and weather. Baron Lahontan tells of a sweet juice of maple, which the Indians to the northward gave him, mingled with water; but our Indians use no such drink. For their strong drink they are altogether beholden to us, and are so greedy of it, that most of them will be drunk as often as they find an opportunity; notwithstanding which it is a prevailing humor among them, not to taste any strong drink at all, unless they can get enough to make them quite drunk, and then they go as solemnly about it as if it were part of their religion.
§ 18. Their fashion of sitting at meals is on a mat spread on the ground, with their legs lying out at length before them, and the dish between their legs; for which reason they seldom or never sit more than two together at a dish, who may with convenience mix their legs together and have the dish stand commodiously to them both, as appears by the figure.
The spoons which they eat with do generally hold half a pint; and they laugh at the English for using small ones, which they must be forced to carry so often to their mouths that their arms are in danger of being tired before their belly.
Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond. Tab. 10. Book 3 Pag. 141Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond.Tab. 10. Book 3 Pag. 141
Tab.X. Is a man and his wife at dinner.
No. 1. Is their pot boiling with homony and fish in it.2. Is a bowl of corn, which they gather up in their fingers, to feed themselves.3. The tomahawk, which he lays by at dinner.4. His pocket, which is likewise stripped off, that he may be at full liberty.5. A fish.}} Both ready for dressing.6. A heap of roasting ears.}7. The gourd of water.8. A cockle shell, which they sometimes use instead of a spoon.9. The mat they sit on.
No. 1. Is their pot boiling with homony and fish in it.
2. Is a bowl of corn, which they gather up in their fingers, to feed themselves.
3. The tomahawk, which he lays by at dinner.
4. His pocket, which is likewise stripped off, that he may be at full liberty.
5. A fish.}} Both ready for dressing.6. A heap of roasting ears.}
7. The gourd of water.
8. A cockle shell, which they sometimes use instead of a spoon.
9. The mat they sit on.
All other matters in this figure are understood by the foregoing and following descriptions.
OF THE TRAVELING, RECEPTION AND ENTERTAINMENT OF THE INDIANS.
§ 19. Their travels they perform altogether on foot, the fatigue of which they endure to admiration. They make no other provision for their journey but their gun or bow, to supply them with food for many hundred miles together. If they carry any flesh in their marches, they barbecue it, or rather dry it by degrees, at some distance over the clear coals of a wood fire; just as the Charibees are said to preserve the bodies of their kings and great men from corruption. Their sauce to this dry meat, (if they have any besides a good stomach,) is only a little bear's oil, or oil of acorns; which last they force out by boiling the acorns in a strong lye. Sometimes also in their travels each man takes with him a pint or quart of rockahomonie, that is, the finest Indian corn parched and beaten to powder. When they find their stomach empty, (and cannot stay for the tedious cookery of other things,) they put about a spoonful of this into their mouths and drink a draught of water upon it, which stays their stomachs, and enables them to pursue their journey without delay. But their main dependence is upon the game they kill by the way, and the natural fruits of the earth. They take no care about lodging in these journeys, but content themselves with the shade of a tree or a little high grass.
When they fear being discovered or followed by an enemy in their marches, they every morning, having first agreed where they shall rendezvous at night, disperse themselves into the woods, and each takes a several way, that so the grass or leaves being but singly pressed, may rise againand not betray them. For the Indians are very artful in following a track, even where the impressions are not visible to other people, especially if they have any advantage from the looseness of the earth, from the stiffness of the grass, or the stirring of the leaves, which in the winter season lie very thick upon the ground; and likewise afterwards, if they do not happen to be burned.
When in their travels they meet with any waters which are not fordable, they make canoes of birch bark, by slipping it whole off the tree in this manner: First, they gash the bark quite round the tree, at the length they would have the canoe off, then slit down the length from end to end; when that is done, they with their tomahawks easily open the bark and strip it whole off. Then they force it open with sticks in the middle, slope the under side of the ends and sow them up, which helps to keep the belly open; or if the birch trees happen to be small they sow the bark of two together. The seams they daub with clay or mud, and then pass over in these canoes, by two, three, or more at a time, according as they are in bigness. By reason of the lightness of these boats, they can easily carry them over land, if they foresee that they are like to meet with any more waters that may impede their march; or else they leave them at the water side, making no farther account of them, except it be to repass the same waters in their return. See the resemblance, Tab. 6.
§ 20. They have a peculiar way of receiving strangers, and distinguishing whether they come as friends or enemies, though they do not understand each other's language: and that is by a singular method of smoking tobacco, in which these things are always observed: